Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
This Week in PNAS

In This Issue

PNAS June 5, 2018 115 (23) 5817-5819; https://doi.org/10.1073/iti2318115
  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Hydrogel helps restore artworks and reveals hidden inscription

Figure1
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

(Left) Detail from the Ascesa dei Beati by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel; (Right) 16th-century drawing reproducing the same detail and showing the inscription (artist unknown).

Many ancient and contemporary artworks are marred by pressure-sensitive tapes, which are composed of an adhesive, such as rubber or silicone, layered atop a support, such as paper or fabric. Current methods to remove adhesive tapes from artworks rely on solvents, which can spread across and irreversibly disfigure the underlying artwork. To noninvasively remove adhesive tapes from paper artworks, Nicole Bonelli et al. (pp. 5932–5937) fashioned a hydrogel into which a nanostructured fluid was embedded. The fluid was composed of droplets of the organic solvents ethyl acetate, 1-pentanol, and propylene carbonate stabilized in water by the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate. Using the fluid-loaded hydrogel cut to match the size and shape of the adhesive tapes, the authors safely detached the tapes from two 20th-century drawings by the Portuguese–French abstractionist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and the American artist Helen Phillips Hayter. Similarly, applying the hydrogel to a fragment of rubber-on-cellulose tape on a 16th-century rendering of a scene of The Last Judgment by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel helped safely remove the tape. Hidden underneath the tape was the inscription “di mano di Michelangelo,” which the authors believe to be a false attribution obscured with the tape by a collector. The authors also used the hydrogel to remove tape-induced discolorations on a ballpoint pen and tempera drawing by the 20th-century Italian artist Lucio Fontana; wet cleaning, by contrast, can erase pen strokes. According to the authors, confining the nanostructured fluid to the hydrogel enables rapid removal of adhesive tapes without lateral migration of solvents into artworks, and the hydrogel can be easily recharged for multiple applications. — P.N.

Rett syndrome and messenger RNA profiles

Rett syndrome, a severe neurodevelopmental disorder, affects girls in early childhood, triggering regression in previously acquired speech and motor skills. The disease is primarily caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Using a mouse model of Rett syndrome, Sivan Osenberg et al. (pp. E5363–E5372) demonstrate that neuronal activity induces an abnormal global pattern of gene expression in the brain, as well as aberrant alternative splicing—the process by which a precursor messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule transcribed from a gene gives rise to multiple types of mature mRNAs encoding distinct proteins. The authors injected MECP2-mutant mice and control mice with kainic acid to stimulate neurons, isolated the hippocampus, and used RNA sequencing to analyze mRNA profiles. Neuronal activity induced higher expression levels of 281 genes, as well as 560 distinct alternative splicing events, in MECP2-mutant mice compared with control mice. In particular, mRNAs from mutant mice consisted of more retained introns—nucleotide sequences that usually do not code for amino acids—as well as three times as many skipped or excised exons—nucleotide sequences that encode amino acids. According to the authors, the findings suggest that MeCP2 is required for regulating changes in gene transcription and alternative splicing in response to neuronal activity. — J.W.

Antique Italian violins mimic human voice

Figure2
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Amati (1570) and Stradivari (1722) violins. Image courtesy of the Chimei Museum.

Andrea Amati, the early 16th-century Cremonese luthier, is considered the father of the modern four-string violin. Amati’s design has stood the test of centuries, largely owing to its favorable acoustic features. Hwan-Ching Tai et al. (pp. 5926–5931) attempted to test the hypothesis that the acoustic properties of old Italian violins, including Amati and Stradivari violins, resemble those of the human singing voice. The authors used speech analysis techniques to examine the scales of 15 antique Italian violins played by a professional violinist and recorded at Taiwan’s Chimei Museum, as well as those of eight men and eight women, ranging in age from 16 to 30 years, who sang common English vowels. Analysis of frequency response curves and formants, which are resonance frequencies originating from standing waves in the vocal tract, revealed that an Amati violin dating to 1570 and a Gasparo da Salo violin dating to 1560 mimicked the formant properties of male singers, raising the possibility that master luthiers from this period may have designed violins to emulate male voices. In contrast, Stradivari violins were marked by elevated formants, making them more similar to female voices—a feature that the authors suggest might account for the violins’ storied tonal quality. According to the authors, antique Italian violins can produce formants that recall the human singing voice. — P.N.

Handedness and birthweight

As early as 10 weeks of gestation, when growing human fetuses begin moving their arms, the question of whether the newborn will be left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous is addressed. Previous studies have suggested direct links between left-handedness and both low birthweight—less than 1.5 kg—and preterm birth. Because newborn triplets are around 1.5 kg lighter than singletons, Kauko Heikkilä et al. (pp. 6076–6081) examined links between birthweight and handedness in two large datasets composed of 1,305 triplets from Japan and 947 triplets from the Netherlands of average gestational age of around 33 weeks. Whereas the average birthweight of left-handers in the Japanese sample was 1.599 kg, right-handers weighed 1.727 kg on average. Similarly, left-handers in the Dutch sample weighed 1.794 kg on average compared with the average birthweight of 1.903 kg for right-handers. Analysis within and between families also suggested a link between left-handedness and low birthweight, regardless of maternal or gestational age. By contrast, handedness appeared to be unrelated to birth order in both samples. In the Japanese sample, left-handers reached motor milestones significantly later compared with right-handers; no such association was observed in the Dutch sample. Though the study did not account for maternal stress, birth complications, or fetal focal brain injuries, it reinforces the link between left-handedness and low birthweight using a large triplet data set, according to the authors. — P.N.

Archaeological finds illuminate Roman Empire battle

Figure3
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Four ossa coxae threaded onto a stick.

The northern expansion of the Roman Empire between the first century BC and the first century AD was marked by pitched battles with Germanic tribes, whose ferocity was a frequent subject of Roman military lore. However, a dearth of well-preserved human remains at purported battle sites has hampered understanding of the nature of the fighters, weaponry, and battlefield practices. Mads Kähler Holst et al. (pp. 5920–5925) report the results of archaeological excavations undertaken between 2010 and 2014 at the Alken Enge wetlands in Denmark’s Illerup River valley. Dispersed in peat and lake sediments in over 75 ha of wetland meadows, nearly 2,100 human bones and bone fragments were unearthed and radiocarbon-dated to 2 BC to AD 54. The human remains were accompanied by ceramic pots and the bones of dogs, pigs, and cattle, along with weapons, such as an axe, spearheads, sword and shield fragments, and iron knives. The human bone fragments, which represent 82 individuals, mostly adult male, bear signs of trauma before and around the time of death, as well as tooth marks and fissures caused by foxes, dogs, and wolves. Together, the evidence at Alken Enge suggests large-scale armed conflict by an estimated population of 380 young men who sustained combat injuries, lending support to previous accounts of military prowess in northern Germania. The discovery of cut marks on bones, bone assemblages, and hip bones threaded on a stick suggests that human bones may have been collected and treated in the battle’s aftermath and hints at the possibility of ritual in the disposal of human remains, according to the authors. — P.N.

PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
In This Issue
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2018, 115 (23) 5817-5819; DOI: 10.1073/iti2318115

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2018, 115 (23) 5817-5819; DOI: 10.1073/iti2318115
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 115 (23)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Hydrogel helps restore artworks and reveals hidden inscription
    • Rett syndrome and messenger RNA profiles
    • Antique Italian violins mimic human voice
    • Handedness and birthweight
    • Archaeological finds illuminate Roman Empire battle
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Depiction of the sun's heliosphere with Voyager spacecraft at its edge.
News Feature: Voyager still breaking barriers decades after launch
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 are still helping to resolve past controversies even as they help spark a new one: the true shape of the heliosphere.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Drop of water creates splash in a puddle.
Journal Club: Heavy water tastes sweeter
Heavy hydrogen makes heavy water more dense and raises its boiling point. It also appears to affect another characteristic long rumored: taste.
Image credit: Shutterstock/sl_photo.
Mouse fibroblast cells. Electron bifurcation reactions keep mammalian cells alive.
Exploring electron bifurcation
Jonathon Yuly, David Beratan, and Peng Zhang investigate how electron bifurcation reactions work.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490